Nikon's Auto AF Fine Tune - How To Get The Most From It
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ค. 2024
- Do you have a Nikon camera that features Auto AF Fine Tune? If so, then this video is just what you need to get the most from it!
The thing is, the way most people use Auto AF Fine Tune is actually wrong and can lead to poor results - or at least results that are less than optimum. In this video, I'll cover what AF Fine Tuning is, how to do a proper setup for using it (including a handy focus target I created you can use), how to avoid pitfalls, and a tuning technique that works as well as using a commercial product.
If you've had problems with Auto AF Fine tune before, you'll discover the method in the video will work far better and give you much better results. Currently, this only applies to the Nikon D7500, D500, and D5, but I'm sure as other cameras are added they will also include this feature (i.e. like the upcoming D850).
The AF Target can be found at this blog post for this video:
backcountrygallery.com/get-ni...
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Would be nice if you'd also answer on your facebook....
6 years later this is still helping people !
Thank you!
Hi Steve, brilliant production again and just what I needed to have - an actual 'how to' action video for this topic you cover in your most excellent, well written ebook. Thanks so much for creating this. Makes a MASSIVE difference.
Here's a much easier way to figure a reasonable target distance if you're used to working in feet rather than meters, using 30x the focal length as a general guide. For a 50mm lens, that's 50mm x 30 = 1500mm which converts to 4.9 feet-call it 5 feet for our purposes. So just take the focal length of the lens, move the decimal point one to the left, and label it feet. For a 24mm lens, 2.4 ft. 105mm lens, 10.5 ft. Plenty close enough to get into the sweet spot of that 25x-50x range.
All your videos provide critical information for taking better pictures and have served me well always. Thank you! Definitely getting your book.
Another great video, I now totally understand how the auto fine system works. I look forward to your future videos. Well done Steve!
Great Nikon AF fine tuning vid. I originally bought the book for my D500. Then, when I picked-up a D850, Steve had already updated his book to cover that body, too. Highly recommend!
Excellent video. Answered all my fine tune answers especially the ones I had for my zoom lenses. Will spend a couple hours doing this.
Steve Perry, I thank you for your lesson - help that is of great value. A big hug from Brazil.
Great video again! Thanks Steve, looking forward to the next one
Every new upload from you convinces me to get a D500.
Steve, I am glad I have bought both your eBooks as they are extremely informative, and fun to read with so many funny quotes keeping the reader interested. All your videos are awesome. Thank you for sharing so much with all Nikon users.
Thanks!!
Hi Steve and hello from the U.K , I'm just about to take delivery of my D500 and 200/500. I think I'm going to be asking you many question and reading many of your guides. I've already purchased the Secrets to stunning wildlife and it's fantastic.
HI Steve
Once again an excellent, clearly explained tutorial.
Cheers
thanks so much for answering my question re the lens/camera fine tune. It's just amazing how much I'm clueless about. It's actually a little scary. Thanks again. 😎👍
Steve thanks for the upload, always a gentleman and keeping your promise,
Although the content is satisfactory, I would highly recommend anyone to download the E-book. I have it and let me tell you its the MOST comprehensive guide on autofocus for Nikon anyone could ever wish for. Really valuable reference always at hand for ANY query anyone might have , amateur and pros alike. Simply the best.
Again thank you Steven....you sir are precious and a breath of fresh air in a world full of TH-cam trash. Well done.
Thanks so much for the kind words :)
Christos Phillippou I agree, I bought it yesterday and already have learned a lot about some really useful functions.
I agree. I tried to do a bit of DIY tuning but didn’t read or view this video properly and so all of my ‘test shots’ are completely wrong.
Note to self (and others), R-T-Flipping-M and W-T-Flipping-Video properly next time and you’ll save yourself a lot of wasted time!
Love this guy! Thanks for all your expertise and effort making these videos! Thanks!!!
Thank you so much for this wealth of information Steve. I've just returned to the DSLR world after continuing to be primarily a digital RF and MF/RF/SLR film shooter for many years. My last DSLR was the Canon 20D if that's any indication, so how things have changed...mostly for the better. I'm mainly shooting wildlife, landscapes, and portraits with my D850 and this is exactly what I was needing to help me further hone my Nikon system. I now have all your e-books. Great stuff. Many thanks!
Thanks!!
Thanks for the nice clarification on how to do the fine tuning :-)
maybe i should finally read your e-book :)
Wow! This could not have been more helpful. Got my first big boy lense arriving tomorrow (used Nikon 200-500) and I was nervous about this step. Just did a full run through after watching this video with my kit lenses and everything worked perfect with points coming within 3 points for all 12. Got my paper all laid out for tomorrow and going to tape off the distances on the floor to make lining up each length easier. Thanks again great stuff! Bought your Nikon AF Ebook I’m sure it won’t be my last from you. Best channel to learn photography on TH-cam
Thanks so much!
Steve. Very nice tutorial and a ton better than one of your competitors who set his camera on a wood block outdoors, focused on a telephone pole, and took the resultant value after one shot. In your next update, recommend you talk about how the D500 saves the values for up to 20 different lenses and, if AF Fine Tune is ON, the camera will make the Fine Tune correction automatically when you change lenses.
Excellent information perfectly explained and mastered. Thank you
Thank You for a clear tutorial! did wonders and kept me from buying another lens.
Thank you so much for this , I recently purchased the Tamron 24-70 G2 and I found focus soft and not all good , thankfully I remembered you had a video on this....I did it, a like patience and bang my Tamron is tac sharp 🙂
what was your settings please. my portraits arent sharp when i zoom in
As always, explained so regular folks like me can understand. Big thumbs up.
If you get an error message..come out of Live View. Move the focus point away from the centre and then back to the middle. Go back into Live View and the error has gone! Worked well after reading that tip on DP review.
Awesome guide - just got my D500 2 days ago and the focus seems to be ever so slightly off with my trusty 50mm. Will have to run through this setup and see if it helps 👍🏻
I just did this on my D7200 for a Nikkor 80-200mm f2 8 af D that I got last week. I've been a bit underwhelmed.
Test shots so far look sharper than anything I've ever shot! Can't wait to take it out tomorrow!!
Also, going to fine tune my other lenses.
So....Thanks!!
Awesome - best description ever. Well done Steve.
Great video :) Always enjoy your videos!
Great video as always Steve!!!
Thanks Steve. Simply brilliant.
Thank you so much Mr Steve Perry to learn to calculating AF fine tune for getting correct each lens I own for the sharpest focus. Before saw AF Fine tune but I am no clue on it at all.
Great how-to video..I will follow this soon ~ zoom kit lens is off and I'm having to focus manually which either way, doesnt work very well for capturing birds.
I have just checked the calibration on two Tamron lens and one Nikon lens. The video and the downloaded instructions were fabulous. I have a couple of more Nikon lenses to check. Thanks for the great instructions.
Spot on, Steve. Thanks as always.
I have seen advice before indicating to use only the images taken for calibration, and to NOT use the Live View to achieve focus. I guess these are all just different methods. But I am glad that I know THIS one now, which seems fairly easy and straightforward, and also what Nikon had intended. I would probably use both methods just out of curiosity, the other method involves finding focus on the optical viewfinder, so it makes sense that Nikon has allowed for the use of live view to accomplish the same thing, since many of the new Cameras are mirrorless, and would still need to be calibrated like any other. So this makes perfect sense to me now. Thanks. I have watched about 5 of these videos so far, and each of the 5 offer a different method, so bottom line I am learning a lot. Databyter
Auto auto focus fine tune? Amazing video. New subscriber but I've stalked your channel. It's amazing
Absolutely perfect - THANK YOU for this great explanation, dear Steve !
A very professional presentation, thank you. You’ve convinced me to buy the book now.
Thank you very much!
Thanks! This is a huge help! One thing someone else mentioned on a forum is, when doing this, DON'T refocus between runs. Just focus for the first AF-fine tune, and then don't focus again when repeating the calibration. Is this correct? That's the way I did it, and it seems to have worked.
Thank you - great advise, as always
Nice informative video,great job !!!
Thank you Steve, you're a genius!
Thank you Steve! Your videos are the best and I send ppl to your videos constantly.
Wow, thank you!
Helpful Video, Thanks Steve
Thank you for this great instructional video. I followed the procedures closely to fine tune focus on my refurbished Nikon D500 with 50mm AF-S f/1.4G lens. While the focus looks really good when I zoom in on the playback image, when I compose and focus the viewfinder goes blurry. I have dialed back the diopter as far as it goes in the direction that is most helpful but it just isn't enough. Any thoughts on what else to try?
I bought the ebook and it has been an incredibly valuable tool. Thank you. I have a D500 and a D800E and I now have them set up properly. I really appreciate you taking the time to make these videos. You have been a great help and mentor.
'Set-up properly'.. what are, if any differences.. before & after ??
Thanks for this video. I am always suffering with my nikon 50mm 1.4G Lems.
Its gives bad focus from time to time.
Gunna try your AF Tuning Method .
Thanks Again.
Possibly the best tutorials. Brilliant. Thank you.
Thanks! You're a great teacher!
One of the reason I bought the Sigma 150-600 Sports over the Nikon 200-500 is because I can't put different calibration values at different focus length. At the time of my purchase, Tamron lenses also lacked the support, but they've added it now.
Thanks a bunch, used this on my Nikon D500 with a 17-35 f/2.8
Steve thank you this helped me with my D850, however I just got the Z7II but I notice my 24-70mm 2.8 is soft at times. I do you Fine tune Z7II thank you, love your videos. I have learned so much from you. Be safe
How can do af fine tune in z7 camera
Awesome video, you are a great teacher. I appreciate your help!
Excellent. Thanks Steve!
Great tutorial! Thanks
Thank you so much. You explain this incredibly well😊👊
Thank you so much for sharing 🙏🏼
Hi Steve, thanks for the awesome videos you make !!
I was wondering if i am using a USB dock or a Tap In console on a lens used on Nikon. And i end up putting the values in. If i use that same lens on a Sony mirrorless will that fine tuning still matter ? or it will only matter if i use DSLR ?
Excellent tutorial (and book!)
Very good video. Thanks!
Thanks- Great video and book - I'm going to try it with my 500mm lens however what does 500mmx25 convert to as to feet to target?
Just got a D500 and am reading your ebook right now, it's fantastic. Just answers so many little questions that pop into my head. Nice and clear, easy to read and understand. I'm now wondering if my Tamron 150-600 needs fine tuning or if it's my skills that need honing. Just not getting that pin sharp focus especially when the subject is far off. I'll do some tests.
Thanks!
The last chapter of the book talks about subjects that are far away and the potential sharpness problems so you may want to skip ahead to that one. It covers a few other possibilities as well. Also, it's totally possible that it needs some tuning - Tamron has a TAP console that allows AFFT adjustments at different focal lengths and focus ranges.
@@backcountrygallery Thanks Steve, I'm skipping ahead right now.
Hi Steve - Great video. Makes me want to sell off all my Sony gear and pre-order a D850 & Nikon primes. Thanks again for the great video!
That's the sprit :)
Great video.
What about cameras like D750 without an auto AF calibration ? how to properly set it manually ?
i just finished reading your book it helped me a lot, its great book not only for beginners, i understand that the center point is the most accurate for focusing but i noticed my lens corner point is always need -7 and the near corner -5 ( if its 0 on the center ) is this normal or is it too much
Thank you Steve. I shoot high school sports for Maxpreps, a division of CBS. I wanted to fine tune all my lenses. I shoot with a 500 also.
I have a D500 and the Sigma 70-200mm Sport. I already knew the lens was back focusing really bad, it needed somewhere between neg 15-20 to get sharp.
Great Video but I fight for about an hour to get it to work. THIS IS WHAT I FOUND. I kept getting a message about "Focal Lenght" when I pressed the 2 buttons. I was using Steve's formal as to how far away I needed to be from the focusing print out. So I set up at about 25ft, nothing I did work. So I decided after total failure to bring everything closer together, so I set up at about 12ft and everything started working perfectly. After much testing at 70 and 200mm. I then moved back to 18ft and everything worked fine. So if you continue to get a message about "FOCUSING" please move closer to your target.
great video ! congrats
You can flip the screen and use touch instead of OK button that pushes the camera forward. Touch screen requires very minimal physical contact.
Good point for the D850 - but the D5/D500 don't support touch for menu items like that.
I guess I got spoiled to quickly by d850. Did not know d5/d500 lack this menu touch feature.
I did use the touchscreen, I think its a great suggestion, but the flipping it out part I consider unnecessary.*
*I do baby my gear and I had previously decided to leave my screen the way it is except for those times when I think the contemplated shot is "sponge-worthy."
This solved my problem when I tried it on my D850. Thanks so much for the tip.
Thanks so much for your useful videos on af fine tuning. I tuned my Tokina 11-20 f2.8 0n my Nikon D7100 and with a -3 i got sharp focus for close subjects may be up to 5ft away. However with the same setting for subjects further away the focus slipped more and more backwards. Then I tried to calibrate with the far subjects and got problem with the near ones again. I'm totally confused and not using my lens for time being. Please help me out.
Hey Steve, thank you for this brake down! I just upgraded from the d3400 to the d850 and I just finished fine tuning one of my lenses. Now just one question, do I leave the af fine tune on or off once I have completed the process? Oh and BTW it averaged out to -5.3.
great job Steve.
You need to use the min focus distens from the lens to exclude out depth of field.
so that's amazing, thanks a lot
Thank you for this great video. I followed the procedures to fine tune focus on my Nikon D750 with 24mm AF-S f/1.4G Sigma lens. While the focus looks really good , As per your video i have pressed Record + AF button but no message is coming ...Any reason, I have following resting my settings...
Thank you and a new sub! :)
This was a very helpful video! But, I'm having an issue on a couple of my lenses. I had no issues with my Nikkor 105. With my 24-70 and Tokina 11-16, I get a successful reading a couple of times, then I start getting "Auto AF Fine Tune Failed". I re-checked all settings, and have the camera as stable as possible. Any suggestions?
Hi Steve,
Nice tutorial indeed. Thanks 🙏
Could I done it with my D7200 ?
As I know..My D7200 have "AF Fine Tune" menu feature in it 😇🙏
And what is behind you ? Is it design tab..? 😱
Does the correction value stored in the camera need to be manually reset back to 0 for each of the 12 tests, or does it automatically do this when you do each run?
hi steve how do you know when do calibrate your lens or should i say that do you it as soon as you buy a new or 2nd hand lens and how much sharper have your images become do you before after pics?
Thanks Steve!
Steve, I'm all the way to -20 on my D600 and 50mm 1.8g and it's still back focusing. The D600 focuses correctly with other lenses. Thanks!
The lens may need to go into Nikon - there's not much more you can do.
Steve this is great! Thank you
I used Lensalign to calibrate my Tamron 24-70 2.8 lens came out with a -12 on the 24mm end and a +10 on the 70mm end any advices on what to set it on or is that to far out
The key for success with my new d850 was to center up the AF area point in the viewfinder and then in live view by pressing the multi select button in both cases. - no more error coded.
Steve, thank you making this video, would you please be able to make one with Prime lens and hopefully a 3rd party lens like Sigma 35 1.4?
mailhaniel sigma as its own dock for calibrating the lens. I find it more accurate than fine tuning within the camera.
Hi, I am new to photography I just bought a Nikon D500 I spoke to the sales rep at the store about calibrating my lenses and he suggested that I dint calibrate , he said that the lenses are not totally ever calibrated due to the stops , you may calibrate at f3.5 but then f9.8 is out ext... what do you all think about this?
Hope this is not a dumb question, But, does this apply to only Nikon Lens's? I have 2-Nikon's, and 2-Tamron G2's. Also Steve, Did you have to calibrate your Nikon 200-500 f5.6?
I'm hoping I can use the D850's Auto focus Fine tuning on the newer Tamron G2's as I don't have there Lens calibration Tap-In Console.
This man is amazing
So what do I have to focus on if I have a 200-500 with 2.0x TC... plus the difference is too big... 400-1000mm... I use from 400 to 1000 so what vlaue should I be on or how can I calculate this?
Very useful, I was concerned my new D500 had a fault and I'd have to send it back, but I will definitely use this to try to fix the issues I'm having with back focusing. But what if you use multiple lenses? Will the camera remember the setting for each lens (if different) and adjust the autofocus fine tune value when you connect that lens?
Yes, it will remember each lens you use (I think up to 20)
Can I use this auto af fine tune to actually put the calibration values for a sigma 500 f4 at different distances with the usb dock? So I am suggesting that say I need the value at 3,5 meters then I find it out with the auto af fine tune and then I input the result with the dock (of course in the end the body will have a fine tune value of 0 as the lens will have all the necessary info already). Thanks for the video in any case 🙂!
Steve thanks for the video. I have a Nikon D500 with a Tamron 70-300 f/2.8 G2. I set the camera at 21ft from target @70mm 2.8 and it is giving me +20 +19 =14 =13 =17= so, on however I did crossed of the highest and the lowest added the rest all up and the number I got was 17.5 the last number I got was 19 so what is wrong here??
Is it possible to set up continuous auto focus in movie mode. Haven't found an answer yet?
Excellent video
Interesting. There are variances in any manufacturing process wither it be piston rings or cameras.
i have a nikon D800
so what about if i reach to 20+ and 20- and the lens still doesn't focus properly in the center (still off) but no problem focusing manually in the center. what is the next step to that?
Thanks Steve for this and all of the other info you've provide.
I seldom use Live View. In following your steps you say after the initial focus at 100% in Live View not to re-focus each time to run the the additional test. I noticed that the green box indicating that the image is in focus for the first test then turns red the next time, and each time after, when I go to run the test again. Is that normal? Thanks again!
It's normal. It's because that AF area doesn't actively check focus, so it's only green after you install get focus. Don't worry, it's still in focus though.